McLAURIN, John Lowndes, a Representative and a Senator from South Carolina; born in Red Bluff, Marlboro
County, S.C., May 9, 1860; attended schools at Bennettsville, S.C., and Englewood, N.J., Bethel
Military Academy, near Warrenton, Va., and Swarthmore (Pa.) College; graduated from the Carolina
Military Institute; studied law in the University of Virginia at Charlottesville; admitted to the bar in
1883 and practiced in Bennettsville, Marlboro County, S.C.; member, State house of representatives
1890-1891; attorney general of the State 1891-1897; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-second
Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Eli T. Stackhouse; reelected to the Fifty-third,
Fifty-fourth, and Fifty-fifth Congresses and served from December 5, 1892, until May 31, 1897, when
he resigned; appointed and subsequently elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the
vacancy caused by the death of Joseph H. Earle and served from June 1, 1897, to March 3, 1903;
was not a candidate for reelection; censured by the Senate in 1902 for an assault in which he
participated on the Senate floor; moved to New York City and resumed the practice of law; returned
to Bennettsville, S.C., and engaged in agricultural pursuits; member, State senate 1914-1915; author
of the State warehouse system for storing and financing cotton; served as State warehouse
commissioner from 1915 until his resignation in 1917; died at his estate near Bennettsville, S.C., July
29, 1934; interment in McCall Cemetery.

Bibliography

Stroup, Rodger E. John L. McLaurin: A Political
Biography." Ph.D. dissertation, University of South Carolina, 1980.